Gunman’s girlfriend questioned
FBI still trying to figure out what prompted Stephen Paddock’s actions
LAS VEGAS — FBI agents questioned the Las Vegas gunman’s girlfriend on Wednesday as they struggled to get inside the mind of Stephen Paddock, a frustratingly opaque figure who carried out his highrise massacre without leaving the plain-sight clues often found after major acts of bloodshed.
Three days after Paddock gunned down 59 people, Marilou Danley was interviewed at the FBI’s office in Los Angeles and had an attorney with her, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Danley, 62, who has been called a “person of interest” by investigators, was met by federal agents Tuesday night when she arrived at the Los Angeles airport from her native Philippines after more than two weeks abroad.
Investigators are reconstructing Paddock’s life, behaviour and the people he encountered in the weeks leading up to the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said. That includes examining his computer and cellphone.
But as of Wednesday, investigators were unable to explain what led Paddock to rain heavy fire down on a country music festival Sunday night from the windows of his 32nd-floor room at the Mandalay Bay hotel casino. He killed himself as police closed in. The attack left more than 500 people injured.
“This individual and this attack didn’t leave the sort of immediately accessible thumbprints that you find on some mass casualty attacks,” McCabe said.
The 64-year-old retired accountant stockpiled an arsenal of high-powered weapons while pursuing a passion for high-stakes gambling at Nevada casinos, where his game of choice was video poker, a relatively solitary pursuit with no dealer and no humans to play against.
Neighbours described Paddock as friendly, but he wasn’t close to them.
“He was a private guy. That’s why you can’t find out anything about him,” his brother, Eric Paddock, said from his home in Florida. As for what triggered the massacre, the brother said: “Something happened that drove him into the pit of hell.”
Occasionally, Paddock shared news of his gambling winnings, his brother said, recalling a photo text message he received showing a $40,000 payout.
It was in a casino where Paddock met his girlfriend, who was a high-limit hostess for Club Paradise at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in Reno, Eric Paddock told The Washington Post.
Danley’s sisters in Australia said that they believe she was unaware of Paddock’s murderous plans and that he sent her away so she wouldn’t interfere.
In a TV interview in Australia, the sisters called Danley “a good person” who would have stopped Paddock had she been there.
“She didn’t even know that she was going to the Philippines until Steve said, ‘Marilou, I found you a cheap ticket to the Philippines,”’ said one of the sisters, who live near Brisbane.
A brother, Reynaldo Bustos, told ABC from his home outside Manila that Danley had assured him: “Do not panic. I have a clean conscience.”
Paddock wired $100,000 to the Philippines days before the shooting, a U.S. official not authorized to speak publicly said on condition of anonymity. Investigators are trying to trace that money.
Casino regulators are looking closely at Paddock’s gambling habits and checking their records to see whether he had any disputes with casinos or fellow patrons. In addition, investigators are examining a dozen financial reports filed in recent weeks when he bought more than $10,000 in casino chips.
Paddock had no known criminal history. Public records contained no indication of any financial problems, and his brother described him as a wealthy real estate investor.
“I believe, based on what I have been told, the issue was not that he was under financial stress,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee.
Paddock had stockpiled 49 guns since 1982 and bought 33 of them, mostly rifles, over the past year alone, right up until three days before the attack, Jill Snyder, an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told CBS on Wednesday. Twelve of the semi-automatic rifles recovered by authorities were equipped with bump stocks, a device that allows them to fire repeatedly without pulling the trigger over and over.
None of the purchases drew scrutiny because he passed background checks. His gradual accumulation of weapons went undetected because federal law does not require licensed gun dealers to alert the government about rifle purchases.
President Donald Trump, who made a four-hour visit to Las Vegas on Wednesday, said Paddock was a “very demented person.”
He declined to answer a question about gun control, saying only: “we’re not going to talk about that today.” He repeatedly praised the work of the medical staff at the city’s hospitals, describing their work as an “incredible tribute to professionalism.”
He and the first lady, Melania Trump, met privately with the victims at the University Medical Center. He said his message to them was “We’re with you 100 per cent.”
“I invited a lot of them to the White House,” he said. “I said, ‘If you’re ever in Washington, come on over to the Oval Office.’ ”
Trump then headed to police headquarters, where he met with officers and dispatchers who responded to the shooting.